Reality TV Moguls

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What do Donald Trump, Mark Cuban and Richard Branson have in common?

All three are billionaires and have either already ventured into reality TV or will in the near future. After the success of Trump's The Apprentice on NBC, Cuban has inked a deal to debut on ABC's The Benefactor , while Branson will be starring in FOX's Branson's Big Adventure . But do the similarities end there? Well, not really .

When it comes to differences, there is a major one: Cuban and Branson are self-made men, while Trump benefitted tremendously from his father's business. Nonetheless, the three moguls have five traits that set them apart and make them legendary in business folklore.

1- Unconventional business sense The first commonality between the three men is that they all stand out in a crowd. Before Cuban began yelling at NBA referees, Branson began navigating in hot-air balloons and Trump fancied "firing" employees, they all decided to write their own playbooks. Trump did so in the real estate and tourism sector, Branson in media and consumer goods, and Cuban in the Internet technology field.

2- Resiliency The second key trait shared by the three billionaires is their resiliency in the face of adversity. Trump was on the brink of financial collapse and insolvency in the early '90s, when the real estate market cratered. Since buying the once lowly Dallas Mavericks, Cuban has shown tremendous resiliency in the face of naysayers who criticize his style. Branson has been no slouch either: he has taken on deep-pocketed airlines, record labels, retailers, and soft drink makers, and come out largely unscathed (well, unscathed enough to show off his legs in a wedding gown in a legendary PR coup).

3- Ability to take risks Trump's balance sheet is always saddled with debt. And in financial circles, debt is synonymous with financial risk. Cuban's first claim to fame was Broadcast.com, the company he co-founded with Todd Wagner. That firm essentially lost truckloads of money in order to scale the industry fast enough to make a dent. And no need to get into Branson's risk-taking nature: not only has he risked his own well-being by hot-air ballooning, but he ventured into the airline business when everyone was bailing out.

4- Recognition of trends Without risk there can be no reward. And while the three have indeed taken great risks, they have done so in order to capitalize on key trends. Trump's roller coaster net worth has mimicked the real estate sector's strength. But this does not take away from the fact that Trump stuck to his guns when creditors came calling in the early 1990s.

Cuban understood the Web before everyone dived in. Moreover, he understood when to get out, selling Broadcast.com to Yahoo! for a whopping $5.7 billion in 1999, before the market imploded in 2000. Even more genial was the stock-hedging strategy he used to secure his profits in the event that Yahoo!'s stock would fall, which it did.